I have to wonder what this mystery person thinks a woman who is attending a technical event would choose to talk about--knitting, perhaps? The right shade of red for the curtains? I'm honestly gobsmacked that such an attitude still exists.

But I know about embroidery and kittens - why can't I talk about databases?

Reminds me of the time someone drove a not inconsidereable distance here to have an interview with his prospective boss (a lady) during which he said that he considered women to be a distraction in the workplace. How to fail an interview in one simple step!

I have seen very good male nurse and very good female boss. Good and smart people do not depend on the sex, the color of the skin, the language, the religion, the clothes, or anything. You can find bad and worst people everywhere: in your neighbourghood, even in your own family... It all depends on your DNA and the way you have been raised. Guess what would have become of you if you had been switch, while you were a baby at the hospital, to a family that abuse and brainwash their child instead of being properly raised...

Ada Lovelace - possibly the first ever computer programmer.Grace Hopper "the mother of Cobol"Frances Allen - Won a Turing award. Not exactly small beer.

My wife's aunt was the highest ranking female officer in the Royal Navy during WWII. She was shipped all over the world installing, configuring RADAR plus training people to do the same. This is a women who at the age of 92 demonstrated to a TV repair man that the "broken" TV could be fixed by replacing a specific chip and soldering a loose connection!

I was about to say pretty much exactly the same thing. Having seen her speak at this year's SQLBits, I can definitely attest to her being one of the best technical presenters out there, and an excellent counter-example to the kind of idiocy Steve mentions in his article.